INQ has certainly made a good job of establishing itself in a relatively short time. Just over a year ago, they were barely known, but their social networking phones have made a splash in the social networking arena. The latest model, the INQ Chat 3G, exclusively available on 3, is our favourite so far.

QWERTY keyboard INQ Chat 3G

Earlier INQ models, the INQ1 and INQ Mini 3G, had standard 3x4 keypads, but the INQ Chat 3G features a QWERTY keyboard, which is just what you need for a social networking device. The keyboard is necessarily on the small side, but spacious enough and with raised keys for comfortable use. We did, though, occasionally have to use our fingernails to guarateee we hit the right key.

The INQ Chat 3G most closely resembles the BlackBerry Curve and feels nice in the hand. The colour scheme is mainly black, but there is a choice of six rich colours for the back – ours was ruby.

Social networking on the INQ Chat 3G

The INQ Chat 3G is first and foremost a social networking device, so Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and Skype are all present and correct. But unlike its predecessors, it streams your Twitter feeds at regular intervals so you’re always in the loop. All you need to do is set up the feed on your homepage. Facebook works the same way. In fact, you can customise your home screen to include up to three live feeds at a time, although we would recommend that your get rid of the colourful background wallpaper first.

Setting up the feeds is easy and takes no time at all. But the whole device started to slow down when we signed into Windows Live Messenger, leading to a delay between typing into a text box and the text appearing on screen. This makes everything a bit confusing as you think you’ve not pressed the key hard enough, retype your word and have it appear twice.

Really, the INQ Chat 3G needs a larger processor to accommodate all its social networking features, but this is designed to be an affordable phone so we shouldn’t expect too much.

Also, when we added a new friend on Messenger, it didn’t add them until we logged back in again even when they were already online.

Navigation on the INQ Chat 3G

All the apps are on the scroll bar at the bottom of the home screen which can be controlled by either the D-pad or the switch key on the right-hand side of the handset. This is a great key: it will bring up the scroll bar from anywhere you are, so can start a new app without having to leave the one you’re already in.

Signing into Skype was easy as the proverbial pie, and while the call quality could have been better it seems churlish to argue, when you can contact any Skype user across the world for free. We called a friend in the Netherlands, and while sound quality was okay, we lost the connection twice. Whether this was a fault at her end or ours, we couldn’t say.

Email on the INQ Chat 3G

Email is also nicely taken care of on the INQ Chat 3G. There are preinstalled settings for more popular email interfaces including Hotmail and Yahoo! So all you need to do is enter your email address and password. Emails are not pushed to the phone, but you get regular alerts when you receive new messages and, if you’re in a rush, you can press send/receive for an immediate check.

Gmail does push directly to your phone, which is great, but our Hotmail account occasionally failed to show new messages at all, even though they were there when we checked on our PC.

Music and camera on the INQ Chat 3G

The Chat 3G has a music player, but it’s not up to much, to be honest. For a start, there’s no 3.5mm headset port, and the included headset and speakers are scratchy and echoey.

The camera too is distinctly average. As 3.15 megapixels, it has no flash and the macro setting gives you close-ups that are difficult to identify.  But you can upload your snaps directly to Facebook and Twitter, and the quality is adequate for this purpose.

The verdict on the INQ Chat 3G

The INQ Chat 3G was designed to be a social networking phone at a good price, and in that sense it’s a success. It may not be the fastest device around, but it caters for all you social networking needs, and the QWERTY keyboard makes it even better. It’s the best INQ to date, without doubt.

You can buy the INQ Chat 3G By Clicking Here